When it became completely undeniable that Sally was with child, Jack had gotten into the habit of turning one of the spare rooms in his house into a nursery for the baby. She loved standing at the door, hand on her swollen belly, watching him try to get the cast-iron crib set up near the giant window or find a way to attach the bats-and-pumpkins mobile in a perfect spot over where the crib would be. He tried to make everything so perfect, and she thought that was incredibly sweet of him.
She was eight months along, and Jack was more than happy to help her when she wanted him to. Even when she got tempermental with him, he would just try to calm her down and do just about anything she asked of him. He didn't mind the moodswings, the mildly violent tendencies, or anything else that came along with her pregnancy because he knew that it would be over soon and he would have a beautiful baby in return. That alone was worth anything she could throw at him.
The mayor was getting agitated with him. Jack could hardly focus on any Halloween planning, and if he ever said anything at all it was usually a question about the baby. Like, "What do you think it'll be? boy or girl?" or "Do you think it'll look like me or Sally?" and it was getting on his nerves. He needed to get the holiday planned, and his best planner was daydreaming about the child his wife was carrying.
But he will admit that Jack did get a lot of the work done during the first seven months Sally was pregnant, when she spent all day at Finklestein's lab with Jewel reading up on how to take care of a baby and what to do in certain situations. That gave him work time, and he would have to force his mind to focus. He knew that, once the baby came, he would never be able to focus on work for a long, long, long, long time.
"Did you know we already picked out names?" Jack asked one afternoon while the Mayor was trying to get work done. They still had so much left to plan, and Jack was hardly paying any attention to his suggestions at all. "We had a hard time, actually. But we decided that if its a boy we'll name it Luce-- its Latin for light-- and if its a girl we'll name it Anna-- it means gracious. That seems like an appropriate name for a girl, doesn't it?"
"Personally I would've chosen something fun, like Dementia. Means insanity."
Jack looked at him funny. "Well, yeah, but I want my baby girl to be proud of her name and not think I was trying to give her the okay to do something insane." The mayor looked at him as skeptically as his joyful side would let him.
"I never thought of it that way." and, after he took a minute to think about it, he supposed it made a lot of sense.
The afternoon went by in a tedious blur, seeming to drag on and on with every minute taking what felt like an hour. It seemed at first like that afternoon was going to go by just as the other afternoons before it, up until dusk right after the mayor left and he suddenly heard Sally's bloodcurling scream coming from the kitchen. He hurried away from the front door and got to the kitchen in time to see Sally collapsed on the floor, looking like she was going through agonizing pain.
He lifted her into his arms just as the pain started dissipating, but even though her screaming was slowly starting to stop. When she started calming down he was able to ask why she was screaming like that.
"I don't know, but it hurt." She whimpered, but then something occured to her in a quick flash similar to turning a light on. "Oh god, I hope something's not wrong with the baby!"
"Everything is probably fine," Jack said hurriedly. "But we better check with Dr. Finklestein just in case. Come on." He helped lift her up off the ground and stuck by her side through the whole walk to Finklestein's lab. She probably wouldn've been able to walk on her own without Jack keeping his hands on her shoulders the whole way and leading her like she was blind. But it was a sweet gesture, and she needed him to touch her. She couldn't imagine what would happen if something was wrong with the baby, or if they were going to lose it. She was so scared that she would've started shaking had Jack not had his hands on her.
They walked up the winding ramp to find Dr. Finklestein in his inventing room, surrounded by beakers and test-tubes with experamental liquids inside. When he heard them come in, he stopped whatever he was doing and gave them his full attention.
"What brings you two here?" He asked, putting his tweezers on the table and letting the poor bug he was experimenting with rest for a moment.
They told him what happened. "Is that all?"
"What do you mean 'is that all'?" Sally asked in such an angry way that it surprised Jack. He'd never heard her sound like that, not even with her moodswings. "Something might be wrong with the baby and all you say is 'thats all'?"
"There's nothing wrong with the baby Sally," He said gently. "On the contrary. It means you're ready to give birth."
At that moment, it seemed like the whole world froze in its place. The only sounds that could be heard was the bubbling coming from the boiling liquid in one of the beakers. Finally, Jack broke the silence, and of all the things he could say, what poetry came from his mouth?
"wow," Just wow.
"So let me just clean up here and I'll help deliver it. I swear, didn't either of your read those pregnancy books Jewel suggested?" Their silence was answer enough. "Too busy cooing to her belly and building a nursery huh? I kind of figured. Well, Sally, go lay down on that table over there and I'll be right with you."
So Sally did as she was told, Jack staying by her side every minute. He was trying to stay calm about the whole thing, although he was noticably terrified. But then again, Sally had no right to say anything about it because she was just as terrified as he was.
But then Sally gave birth to Anna, a beautiful baby skeleton, and he saw his whole world come alive right before his eyes.
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A/n below:
Sally gave birth! woo!
Repo Man: You took a forever to write it.
Me: thats because I met you and your movie a few nights ago and have spent those nights obsessing.
Repo Man: you're still obsessing.
Me: *Glomp* shuddup silly! <3
